Silicon & Beyond – Not giving up when times are tough
“Hire the best people, do the best work and provide the best product and customer support.”
Differentiation through mastering the basics–
Power, performance and silicon area are very important parameters in the tech industry. Silicon & Beyond is quite unique in this regard and can extract the best from their talent while pursuing best-in-class projects. The power consumption of their technology is the lowest in the industry and the size of their IP is relatively smaller than their competition. These, and many other innovations, result in cost-savings that are directly transferred to the clients who enjoy working with Silicon & Beyond for this very reason.
The long road ahead–
The journey started with four founders, including CEO Mr. Sujoy Chakravarty, in a small room with the working server. Their passion for technology had surpassed their desire to work in a company and they wanted to start their own venture. Their friends told them to quit before they became failures, but they trudged on nonetheless. Instead of letting the negativity get to them, they turned their focus on expanding their knowledgebase in technology. The first three years were extremely difficult and they didn’t make profits that could sustain them in the long run. However, they improved their technology and asked their customers for new requirements and they fulfilled those requirements to the best of their abilities. They never doubted their skill set as they knew that they were ahead of the market when it came to innovation. However, they had to execute better and bring their ideas to fruition when they wanted to create new technology. The founders learned the basics of business and focused hard on maintaining a business focused mindset when pitching to potential customers.
Innovation driven accolades–
Silicon & Beyond has been granted 5 US Patents and 7 more are filed with the USPTO and Indian Patent office. These innovations give the company advantage over its competition and denote continued success and appreciation from well-known brands across the world. Creating a global customer base isn’t easy and these patents and accolades have been the building blocks of that foundation.
Entrepreneurship and friendship–
Silicon & Beyond’s first office was in a small room inside a friend’s office. Their friend was gracious enough to host them when times were tough. Four of them sat huddled together with not a penny to their names. In fact, if it hadn’t been for their friend, the company may not have taken off as it did. Their investors paid up early in terms of financial support and they hustled hard for several months before they made it big. According to Mr. Sujoy, it takes perseverance to push through extreme challenges and they faced them head on while focusing on the big picture.
Through high costs and industry challenges–
There are many benefits that align well with the industry including highly knowledgeable customers who know what they want. This saves on customer education costs, but adds to the competitive nature of the market in general. The ticket sizes also tend to be larger and so the chances of failure are higher if your brand hasn’t handled these sizes before. Some other pitfalls include the high costs of labor and finding skilled talent that knows what it's doing. Sales cycles can take anywhere between a few months to a few years. Entrepreneurs therefore need to be business savvy if they are entering this domain.
Benefiting others’ lives -
Silicon & Beyond takes care of people in their local community and they teach at local engineering colleges to enhance the skill sets of future entrepreneurs. Apart from that, they also participate in donation drives and charities that help them give back to the society.